Thanksgiving as currently observed and celebrated goes back to a gathering of Native Americans and English colonists in 1621.
The same colonists were urged NOT to celebrate Christmas that same year by their leaders, and the Puritans in fact banned Christmas celebrations in Massachusetts in 1659.
The tension between religious leaders and their flocks were present from the beginning, and they are highlighted in a new historical novel about Plymouth Colony, Beheld.
Author TaraShea Nesbit weaves historical figures and research with her own creations in a tale of optimism and oppression, murder and trial. We visit with the author about her book.